The Long Journey Home
by Takada Saiko
Summary: I want your unique connections to Starfleet, Winona. Especially to one Christopher Pike." Sequal to Ghosts. R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Long Journey Home

Author: Takada Saiko

Disclaimer: I still don't own them. Seriously. I have no money, therefore you shouldn't sue me. I have a cat, but I think I'd fight tooth and nail before I'd give him up.

A/N: Okay, so this is a sequel to Ghosts. While I don't suppose you have to have read it, it will make a lot more sense if you did. So yeah… Anyway. Yay new story! Oh, and btw, since I know that I'll probably have some new readers (I hope so anyway) and some didn't read the author's notes on the LAST story b/c I was getting questions on this, I will state it again so I don't confuse anyone, because I'm really good at that…: Spock and Uhura are _**NOT**_ dating in this. I'm a UhuraXScotty fan, but there probably won't be any of that either, because this is totally focused on these three, as I love them dearly.

Chapter One.

The cold air bit into them as soon as they stepped from the shuttle, but it was nothing compared to the winds of Shriven II that they had encountered very few days ago. While those would bite through whatever clothing that one might cover themselves with, no matter how thick, Iowa's cold could be warmed away.

Perhaps that was how Jim Kirk was able to exit to shuttle with only a light jacket to cover his t-shirt.

He glanced back to see his two companions, both clad in heavier coats and Spock even had a hat pulled down around his head that covered the tips of his pointed ears and the arches of his eyebrows. Kirk wasn't sure how much of the half-Vulcan's attire was his own choice, having grown up on a desert planet and holding a hirer body temperature than Humans, and how much of it was the paranoid, pessimistic doctor that was busy looking for something in his oversized jacket and not being able to find it because his gloves were too thick. Bones had protested widely about leaving out on shore leave, as Kirk still sported a brace on his right leg and while some bruises had begun to fade from his encounter with the falling rocks, some were only beginning to show. At least his eye was no longer swollen so that he could barely see out of it. Spock, on the other hand, looked as if he were back to normal. True, he wasn't quite back to his normal self, but he was lucky to be alive, much less walking around.

"You two are pathetic," Jim said with a lopsided grin. He motioned to their heavy clothing. "We're in Riverside, not on Delta Vega."

"I don't give a damn where we are, Jim, it's cold," McCoy protested loudly, causing several heads around them to turn. The people eyed him warily.

"Sorry," Kirk called to the people who had been watching them. "He's from the deep south."

"Damn right, and remind me again what bright idea brought you here. Not to mention the fact that you dragged us along."

"It's shore leave, Bones. I wasn't going to just sit around in a few rooms that Starfleet had rented for us. That's a waste. I know you've been here, but Spock hasn't. You haven't seen much of anything on Earth outside of San Francisco, have you, Spock?"

"I have been in Washington DC, New York City, and San Francisco with my father for his trips as ambassador to Earth. I visited Seattle once when I was very young to meet my mother's family ," the Science Office answered as he pulled his hat back a bit so that his view was not obstructed, and then turned to towards McCoy. "It is cold here, Doctor, but you are exaggerating."

"Dammit, Spock!" Bones growled. He had expected, if for nothing else, that he would have his agreement about the weather being unbearable. He wondered silently if the Vulcan disagreed with him sometimes just for the pleasure of disagreement. You couldn't fool Leonard McCoy into believing that Spock had no emotions. Not for one minute. Jim was laughing at him by now and he huffed in frustration. "Wasn't nearly this cold last time I was here."

"It wasn't in the middle of winter, either," Kirk reminded him. His eyes scanned the landscape, taking in the sights. People were changing transportation vehicles and greeting loved ones. Not much had changed in the little over three years since he had up and run out on everything. Some familiar faces mingled around him, but none acknowledged him. He knew that no one in the area really paid attention to the news (if they even received it with that 'new fangled electrical system. My grandfather used to speak of a television! Good old fashion TV…' as elderly would gripe), so their faces wouldn't be readily recognized. His eyes finally fell on a spot in the distance that looked like a well-known shipyard in which he had met the irritable doctor standing to his right. It seemed like so long ago… perhaps another lifetime. Had it really only been three years? He had left without saying a word to his mother, knowing that he could not explain his reasons, nor was he ready to at the time. He had wanted to do something to make his father proud instead of waste his life away. He owed Admiral Pike his life for that one speech to a drunken delinquent. Who would have thought it would have worked?

"Does your mother know that you intend to visit?" Spock asked, bringing his captain out of his thought processes.

"No, I don't think so. I've only spoken to her a little since I joined Starfleet. Unless someone else told her, she doesn't even know that's where I've been."

McCoy turned a curious look on his younger friend. "So where the hell does she think you've been?"

Jim shrugged as he bent to grab his bags and started walking. His companions followed suite and they started towards the road. It was old and cracked, not well made for the hovercrafts that were few and far between in this out-of-the-way little farming community. It seemed as if the police might be the only ones without classic – as the residents liked to call them, but anyone outside of Riverside would have called them junk – cars. Even the one bus was running with its old-fashioned tires touching the pavement.

"That is the public transportation?"

Kirk nodded. "Yup, you think you can deal with our low class, hick ways, Spock?"

"What is a 'hick'?"

McCoy burst out laughing at this as he entered the bus behind his half alien friend. While Jim had managed to be outside the bus and outside the other passengers' hearing range when he had made the statement, Spock had not responded until he was one step in, speaking loudly enough for his Human captain to hear him clearly. His laughter did not cease as Spock looked around curiously, completely oblivious to the reason behind the glares coming from all sides.

"Sorry, he's not from around here," Kirk managed through his own attempt not to laugh. It was a losing battle from the beginning. He turned back to Spock. "I'll tell you when we get off the bus."

"Have I said something to offend these people?"

"You might want to just quite while you're behind, Spock," McCoy encouraged, patting the taller man on the back and urging him forward. He slid in the seat next to the Vulcan and settled in for one of the bumpiest rides he had ever encountered. At least there were very stable wheels on a very stable ground though. That was good enough for him.

Spock's eyes were fixated on the passing landscape, little as it was. The farmland and all the animals it included passed by with great speed as the bus bounced its way down the old country roads. The half Vulcan had never seen most of the animals before but knew them through various books that he had read.

"You see that?" McCoy asked, pointing out the window as the passed a patch of land.

"A__bos primigenius taurus, I believe."

"Most people call them cows, Spock," the doctor grumbled. "You know what else most people call them?" At the other man's inquisitive look, he smiled. "Steak."

If Bones hadn't known better, me might have thought the Vulcan looked a little disturbed by this. "I am a vegetarian, Doctor."

"Never said you had taste in food," McCoy answered with a shrug, settling in for the rest of the short ride.

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"Are you sure we got off in the right place?"

"I'm sure, Bones."

"It's been three years since you've been here, Jim. Things might have changed… or all look the same. I'll vouch for the latter."

"I grew up here, Bones," Jim promised as they trudged through the slushy muck. Snow had begun to fall in the smallest of flakes and they were moving at a much slower rate than the _Enterprise_'s captain would have wished, but there was little helping it. His leg ached like it had been fully broken instead of fractured and he could tell by the way that Spock continuously shifted his one bag that he was still feeling an ache where his ribs had been broken. Vulcan self healing did wonders, Kirk admitted, but it hadn't fully healed half a shattered rib cage or massive amounts of blood loss. His first officer was still just as much on the mend as he was. That was why coming to Riverside had been the best idea he could come up with. It got them out and about, but offered little real excitement. After all, nothing happened in Riverside, Iowa. "It's just up this road here," he promised. "The one with the car."

McCoy grinned at this. "The infamous care theft?"

"That's the one."

"Car theft, Captain?" Spock questioned.

"It's a long story… my stepdad – or at least, I assume he still is, if my mother hasn't come to her senses and divorced him – pissed my brother off one day and he took off. He – Frank – was going to sell my dad's car, but I drove it off a cliff instead. Almost followed it."

Spock stared at him for a long moment. "I fail to see the logic in that."

"There wasn't any. I was eleven. Oh, and Spock, since Mom doesn't know anything about Starfleet, you might not want to call me 'captain' at all."

"Very well, Jim."

"Good. Look, there it is," Jim said with a grin, pointing at the farm house that stood tall in front of them. "C'mon."

He was pushing himself, he knew, but watching Spock's reunion with his mother made him realize just what an ass he had been to his own. He had spent the better part of his life giving her hell. Hadn't she been through enough? He finally realized that now. Someone, in some small way, he needed to strive to make that up to her. Maybe when she found out that her son had bettered himself, pulled himself out of the gutter and strove to be something – to be a man worthy of the name Kirk – she could find it in her heart to forgive him. He didn't deserve it, but he wanted it. Spock would tell him it was illogical. He glanced sidelong at his first officer. Maybe not. Before their trip to Shriven II, but maybe not now.

Kirk felt a strange mix of excitement and apprehension well up inside him as he pushed open the gate in front of the house that he had grown up in. His mother had told him that his father had always loved that house, and that was why they had never left it. It held memories of George Kirk that she would never throw away. Pictures hung and projected, a metal that had been sent to her for his bravery – sent because she had refused to come and receive it on his behalf – and various other things that had been his. The car had been his, but Jim had destroyed that.

"Who the hell are you?" a voice rang out and Jim turned, shaken out of his musings to find a phaser aimed at him. The excitement wore away quickly and Jim realized that his apprehension had not been for the reasons he had thought it was for.

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A/N: Okay, my former roommates take no offense to the term 'hicks' but I find that others do, so for this story, apparently these people take offense to it. At least nothing was said about having sex with farm animals like Uhura says in the movie… That would have gotten Spock thrown off the bus. Hehe… Poor Spock.

Let me know how it is so far!!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two.

All three Starfleet officers froze, eying the man carefully. He was tall – possibly even taller than Spock – and much bulkier than any of them. He certainly didn't _need_ the phaser that he had aimed at them, that was for sure.

"I'm Jim Kirk. Who the hell are you?"

"You ain't supposed to be here," the man grumbled. "Get inside."

"Now hold on just a minute," McCoy complained.

"You're Winona Kirk's son?" the burly man asked, completely ignoring the doctor.

"I am," Jim answered, straightening a little. He had no idea who these men were, but he had a bad feeling about it. They were ushered into the house without another word and the captain was disturbed, to say the least, by the way they were entering the house he had known so long. There was no happy knock on the door, a wide grin, and an announcement of a prodigal son's return to ask forgiveness of his mother. No, they were entering at phaser point. Not only had he gotten himself in a mess, but Bones and Spock as well. What a fine leader he was…

"Jimmy?" Winona's familiar voice echoed in his ears and Jim's eyes widened. She was sat back as far as she could in the old fashioned chair – that had certainly seen better days with its missing buttons and only sometimes working reclining effect – that his stepfather Frank had frequented in his youth. "Of all the times for you to come home, hun…."

"Shut it, lady," the monstrosity that had led the three officers in growled.

"Now, Ms. Kirk, I didn't know your boy was going to show," a new voice said. A man rose from a chair and all eyes turned to him as he had not been worth the attention spent before he spoke and stood. He was scrawny, with a look of someone who had scraped by only by his mind in one of the hard labor penitentiaries off planet. His eyes were sunken, his flesh drawn, and his hair thinning on top, even if it had no grey yet. He turned an inquisitive look at the new comers. "James Kirk, hmm? The son of the late George Kirk. You never knew your father, did you, boy?"

"Who the hell are you?" Jim growled, feeling himself move forward without any real thought. The giant grabbed his arm and held him in place. "What are you doing in my mother's house?"

"We just came for a visit, Jim. You see, your mother and I have a common friend."

"Jimmy has nothing to do with what you want, Mr. Ferguson," Winona called out, her voice rising with fear. She moved forward in her seat slightly, but one look from the toothpick of a man sent her – a woman Jim remembered for her bravery in the face of nothing but hard times – squirming to the back of her chair once more.

"Quiet," Ferguson, as he seemed to be named, commanded. He turned his attention back to the blond man standing before him. "I met your father, briefly, while we were in the Academy together. He was a good man. I hear you haven't followed in his footsteps, Jimmy. Now why's that?" He paused, his demeanor calm against Kirk's temper that could almost be seen radiating from him. "People around town said you up and disappeared, left your own mother to herself. What, three or four years ago?" He reached out and cupped the captain's chin between his thumb and index finger. "You see, where I've been the last twenty years, you don't get much news. I do remember them talking about your birth though. Quite spectacular, how your father died to save you and your mother, not to mention everyone else on the _Kelvin_, but you… You couldn't live up his legend? Where've you been, Jimmy boy?"

"That's enough," McCoy growled from Kirk's side.

"I must agree," Spock piped in.

"I have men been crawling across this farm, boys. Don't think that you outnumber us," Ferguson said calmly. He glanced between McCoy and Spock, and then back to Winona. A smile that might have been considered friendly if shown under other circumstances cross the man's thin lips."You see, Ms. Kirk, they showed up at just the right time. I think you might have held out if it were just you, but this is your son, no matter how long he's been gone." He pulled back and his balled fist connected with Jim's ribs before anyone in the room realized what was happening.

Winona screamed, but it was Spock that reached out and took a firm hold on the lanky man's arm. He was sure that he knew his face from some old report, but he could not force his mind to pull the information together at that moment. He knew that this man was dangerous, a mastermind of some sort, and he knew that he had done something against Starfleet. It was best that he did not know that was where they were from. He also knew that he had laid a hand on his captain. "I believe you heard McCoy say that that is enough, sir."

Ferguson's eyes flashed and even his hired thug let go of Jim and took a step back. The captain dropped to the floor. He certainly didn't _look_ like he could pack quite a punch.

"You are an outsider to all of this," Ferguson growled and ripped his hand free of the Vulcan's vice-like grip. Spock stared momentarily, surprised by the Human's strength. He back handed the science officer, nearly knocking him off his balance, but Spock held his place. A small amount of green blood leaked from his broken lip and two eyes focused on his carefully. "Reichs, hold him."

The mountain-man moved and took hold of Spock's arms, pulling them uncomfortably behind him so that he could not move. If nothing else he had gained Ferguson's attention, giving Jim time to regain his breathe before the beatings continued. A bony hand reached up and touched the green liquid, then moved quicker than should have been possible to remove the hat that had kept the half-Vulcan's head warm outside, revealing tell-tale signs of pointed ears and arched eyebrows to go with the emerald blood. "A _Vulcan_?" The word was spat out, as if it were a curse. "Why?"

"Clarify."

"Why would a Vulcan – a high standing member of societies wherever they go – be with a lowlife?"

Spock raised his chin a little higher so that he was looking the madman straight into the eyes. "I am not obligated to answer any of your questions, nor do I choose to."

"Uh-huh," Ferguson grunted and motioned to Reichs. "I want to know who he is and what they are doing here." He raised one scrawny hand up to his face, massaging the bridge of his nose. "Ms. Kirk," he said at last. "I do not wish to repeat myself."

"What the hell do you want from her?" Kirk growled out from the floor. "What could my mother possibly have that would be of use to you?"

Ferguson shot him an angry look, but spoke his mother. "I want your unique connections to Starfleet, Winona," he said slowly, as if testing each word to make sure that it came out just as he wished it to. He licked his lips and turned his intense stare to the woman he was speaking to. "Especially Christopher Pike."

"My mom doesn't have any connections to Pike!" Jim yelled. What was this man talking about and what did he know of Admiral Pike? He had said that he knew nothing of what had happened, that he had been someplace that did not get news for the last twenty years. Was it possible that he did not even know of the _Narada_'s attack and destruction of Vulcan, or the near destruction of Earth?

"But she does," Ferguson promised. "Your father is a hero, Jimmy. His widow has the ability to get a hold of anyone she wants out of Starfleet. I know how the system works."

Reichs began to tug Spock out of the room and something clicked in his memory. "I am Starfleet," he said, the words out of his mouth before he knew they were coming. He really needed to watch himself closer, he chastised himself, because he had become much more impulsive since choosing James T. Kirk as a companion.

The words caught Ferguson's attention and he motioned for his thug to stop. "Are you now? When did Vulcans begin to fly amongst the stars in Starfleet ships?"

"I am the first, and only as of yet. If you do not believe me, I have my credentials in my bag that was dropped outside."

The elder man stepped forward, the Kirks and McCoy seemingly forgotten. His focus was completely on the Vulcan. "I believe you. Your people have a tendency towards the truth. Are your companions Starfleet?"

"No," Spock answered without missing a beat.

"Then why are you with them?"

"I was sent. The Federation is aware of your escape, David Ferguson, and has issued an order to Starfleet to recapture you at all costs." He watched paranoia grasp the man before him and he continued. "I was ordered to track you down."

"And them?" Ferguson motioned towards Jim and Bones, who were looking at Spock with shocked expressions.

"They were convenient," the half-Vulcan responded.

"What else?"

"I am not at liberty to reveal any other information."

Ferguson twitched slightly. "Take him upstairs. I want everything he knows." A tight smile spread across his lips. "We have just hit gold. I may not need the bitch after all, but she won't hurt." He turned to another one of his men and motioned towards the remaining three. "Take them upstairs as well and lock them up. I want guards posted as instructed. They will not be getting out."

"Yessir," the man answered and several more joined him to usher Winona, Jim, and McCoy up the rickety stairs.

"What the hell is Spock doing?" McCoy mumbled under his breath.

"I have no idea," Jim answered, and truly meant it.

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A/N: So, after writing the last chapter I thought "I want steak… steak would be good." And I went downstairs for dinner, and guess what my dad had cooked. You must be clairvoyant. Yes, it was steak. Sorry Mr. Cow, you were tasty. Anyway, I am obviously not a vegetarian and I would make a horrible Vulcan. Sadly. But I can still love Spock dearly. And Jim. And Bones. Yay!

A/N2: So, I kept trying to write 'Wynola' instead of 'Winona' for this story because the former was my grandmother's name. It's strange.

Latin-freak: Augh, I'm so freakin' jealous. I know. Beam down to Texas, and we'll go see it - grins - I think that works best. Damn, that'd be cool.

Silver-Shadow Spark: thank you very much.

Lost Schizophrenic: It's bad guys! Already! –gasp! –

Cai-ann: Me too. I just hope I can continue on this one and not go off on some other tangent…

Shinigami061: It was just too good to resist. And seriously, I think Bones wrote that chapter, not me. I'll just say that and move on with life. Lol

Nkundra: Nope, not slash, but I write really, really close male friendships (if you've ever seen Starsky and Hutch, that kind of close and not that horrible excuse for a movie either!!) but I've heard people say that they read a lot of my stuff as slash because of that. Feel free if you wish.

McRaider: Wow! What high praise, thank you so much!! It's always encouraging to have such nice things said. I hope you enjoy this story as much as the last one. I will endeavor to make it worth everyone's time

AllieMcD: Yay, more Uhura/Scotty fans!! That's so exciting!! I like Jim, even if he's not my favourite (I have to love Spock, sorry) but he's always one of my main characters in my Star Trek fics 1. Because he works so well with Spock and 2. Because he's James T Kirk and he doesn't seem to take a backseat to anyone lol

Dragonwhitch250: Good to see you back!

Sootgremlin11: Hehe… yes. I loved them in TOS and the fact that they didn't seem to know if they hated each other or were friends. Even though he would NEVER admit it, I think Spock enjoyed riling Bones up, and Bones might admit to having a good time riling Spock up

Cleopatra's Snake: I've never lived on a farm in my life. I am 100% a city girl, but I could picture this. I don't know… it would just be funny.

aXforamnesty: Thanks very much!!

FireShifter: Not his fault, but would it be McCoy to leave it alone? Nah. I think everyone liked the cow comment. I even liked it lol. And as to Sam and Frank…. Wait and see!!


End file.
